According to the data released by the National Electoral Commission, the ruling Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) secured a convincing victory, gaining over 60 per cent of the vote. The name at the top of the winning party’s electoral list by law will be the new President of Angola, in this case former Minister of National Defence Joao Manuel Goncalves Lourenco.

International observers note the high level of organisation of the electoral process and its transparent and fair character.

We regard the results of the vote as evidence of the unchanged confidence that the Angolan people show towards MPLA and the support of its policy of socioeconomic transformation in the country. Moscow hopes to continue effective multifaceted interaction with the new leadership of Angola for the benefit of our countries and peoples, in the interests of strengthening peace and stability on the African continent.

The Minsk Contact Group decided to declare the so-called “back to school” ceasefire in southeastern Ukraine from August 25, 2017, in connection with the beginning of a new academic year. The leaders of the Normandy Four countries supported this decision in their joint statement.

We regret to note that the ceasefire continues to be violated, and that Ukrainian security forces are staging provocative attacks along the demarcation line.

We expect that all necessary efforts will soon be made to persuade the parties to exercise restraint in line with available negotiating formats and mechanisms, including the Contact Group, the Normandy Four, the OSCE Special Monitoring Mission to Ukraine and the Joint Centre for Control and Coordination.

We urge Kiev to see that the ceasefire is strictly maintained to end the provocations along the demarcation line and to consistently fulfil the obligations it assumed within the Contact Group, on observing the “back to school” ceasefire. We cannot allow the process for a political resolution to the Ukrainian crisis to be jeopardised as a result of irresponsible actions, and we cannot miss this chance for a political settlement.

Thank you for such a warm welcome. I have been invited for the third time running. I am very pleased to receive these invitations because it is very important for international relations professionals to talk to young people who are interested in diverse issues. All the more so since this forum has gathered sociologists and political scientists – professions that are very closely intertwined and, I believe, necessary to figure out what life is about, including international life.

I will share with you some of our assessments. I will not take up your time with long opening remarks because President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has expressed his opinion on these issues more than once and our position is well known.

Polish President Andrzej Duda signed the law of June 22, 2017, on amendments to the law of April 1, 2016, banning Communism or any other totalitarian system propaganda, which specifically provide for the removal of monuments and memorial plaques to the Soviet soldiers who liberated Poland from Nazi occupation in 1944-1945.

Russia has repeatedly drawn Warsaw’s attention to the fact that these actions are a direct violation of the international legal obligations in bilateral treaties and agreements that Russia and Poland signed between 1992 and 1994, under which Polish authorities have a duty to maintain and defend these facilities.

Apart from the international legal aspect, this issue has a crucial moral dimension. The monuments of gratitude to the Red Army and the Soviet liberator soldiers are a reminder that it was owing to the Victory over Nazism, to which the Soviet Union made a decisive contribution, that Poland could survive as a state and the Polish people were not destroyed or banished and were left to live on their own land. The USSR paid an immense price for the liberation of Poland, losing over 600,000 Soviet soldiers and officers, who died in engagements with the enemy in the territory of Poland and were buried there. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war were kept in German concentration camps and also rest in peace in Polish soil.

The Polish authorities are certainly aware of the flagrant insult they are throwing at the Russian people and the peoples of countries that were once part of the USSR, whose sons and daughters were fighting against a common enemy and for the life and liberty of the European peoples, including the Poles. Nevertheless, Warsaw has consciously decided to go ahead with this outrageous provocation. Needless to say, it will not be left without a response.